The relationship between the commercial sector and the educational sector is as old as the concepts themselves. Businesspeople, especially in the United States, heavily influence the daily activities of schools, students and many other values that are associated with the educational process. For instance, businesses donate school supplies and sponsor school activities. In return, schools thank them in the pages of the school's yearbooks or on school publications and newsletters. In other cases, schools organize extracurricular activities where businesses attempt to target future consumers in school children.
With the advancement of technology, the commercialization of the educational process has increased. In many cases, parents can't cope with the increasing demands of their children as part of the commercialization campaigns and peer pressure. Schools have become a place where huge companies hook school children up to the networks of consumption.
Consumer groups in the United States have complained a lot about the unfair pressure exercised on school children. The American Consumer Society has prepared a report entitled "Selling American Children," which addresses the issue of pressure on children as well as consumption trends among the children. The report reviews the daily activities of schools in America, citing the continuous pressure exercised on children in each school activity. This pressure campaign includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Advertising on the cover pages of schoolbooks and notebooks.
- Advertisements posted on school buses.
- Sponsoring of school activities by businesses that receive commercialization opportunities in return.
- Penetration of the curriculum by businesses due to the decrease of financial support by the federal and local governments to education. In order to make up for the deficit in school budgets, school administrations accept business donations, which put them at the mercy of the companies.
- Posters on elevator walls.
- School television and radio commercial campaigns.
- Distributing millions of product samples to schoolchildren.
Why Are Schoolchildren Targeted?
Schools are the ideal place for building consumer loyalty. It's the place where impressionable children form their values and beliefs, most of which remain with them for the rest of their lives. It's the ideal place for producers to test their new products, experiment with the market, provide samples and discover consumer preferences. The following statistics indicate that schoolchildren represent a huge market that is worth the time and effort devoted to it by businesses:
- There are 43 million American children that attend schools on a daily basis. This huge number would guarantee the producers a loyal customer group for most of the 21st century.
- The purchasing power of schoolchildren in the United States is an estimated $15 billion. This amount is spent primarily on food, clothes and toys. In addition, children have the ability to affect parents' expenditures on other related products in the amount of about $160 billion annually.
- The increase of the American adolescent children's purchasing power, which is estimated to be $57 billion of their own earned money, in addition to $36 billion of their families' money.
- In the United States, schoolchildren spend 20 percent of their time at schools. During this time, they are continuously exposed to the aforementioned patterns of advertisement. While at home, they are also exposed to a massive commercial campaign through television, especially those stations that specialize in children's programming. Therefore, school children are targeted by a fierce commercialization campaign wherever they go (at schools, on their way home, during their leisure time, during family television time, at the public parks, etc).
The Captive Child And The Captive Childhood
Schoolchildren are literally captives of corporate America. Their minds are cluttered by conflicting messages, all competing to influence their lives. Their values are threatened by businesses that lack morality. Consumer advocates have cited many alarming trends that threaten the very unity of the educational system in the United States. Among them:
- The increase of teacher's use of material supported by businesses enhances the opportunity of businesses to influence schoolchildren.
- The continuous pressure exercised by businesses on teachers and school administrations to adopt and use some of their products.
- Providing schoolchildren with subsidized material, then lifting subsidies in a latter stage after hooking schoolchildren to these products.
- The commercialization of American society in general.
- The fierce competition among businesses in their quest to control American youth.
The result of such activities is the creation of an independent industry that is monopolized by corporate giants and the captivation of the childhood in America.
Consumer Advocates' Recommendations
Consumer advocates in America have repeatedly warned us about the effects of targeting schoolchildren. It has drawn the attention of society and parents to the following points:
- They have cautioned parents about the real objectives behind businesses supporting some school activities. It is important to remember that their goal is to create dependent and loyal consumers, with the education of young minds holding a lower priority.
- They have educated schools and parents about the process of the commercialization of the educational process. A major aspect of the danger is that businesses are thus able to target kids at times where they are away from their families through the penetration of school curriculum and extra-curricular activities.
- They have warned parents and schools about the spread of many social problems as a result of the commercialization of schools and the advertisement that children are exposed to.
- They have heavily criticized the introduction of television and radio stations that are sponsored by outside businesses and called upon the government to free the children and schools from the influence of businesses.
Schoolchildren should be able to pursue their education free from any kind of pressure. Therefore, if the educational system is unable to totally free its most vulnerable members from the influence of huge corporations, society should exercise and put into effect mechanisms of social control and revision. The material presented to schools should be inspected, revised, tested and experimented with thoroughly before being presented to schoolchildren. The interests of the children should be the main goal of the educational process, not the interests of the business community.
For more information about the influence of corporations on schools, please read the following article, previously posted on Islam Online:
"Schools for Sale"
